a sigh of relief involuntarily fell from his lips. ‘i don’t know’ was the most he could have hoped for, really. at least it wasn’t a ‘hard no’, and implied there was still a chance for forgiveness. “that’s… valid too,” he muttered, avoiding the other’s gaze as he scratched himself lightly behind his ear. being well aware of his tendency to ramble and put his foot in his mouth at the most inconvenient times, archer felt like it was in his best interest to stay silent and let kaito speak his mind. the last thing he wanted was to mess things up even further. “not knowing, i mean. that’s valid. i can give you space to figure it out, or whatever… if that’s what you want, of course.” though the feeling clearly wasn’t mutual, archer cared deeply about kaito. he didn’t mean to fall in love, didn’t mean to get attached to him like he did, but his feelings for him were real and undeniable. just the thought of the longhaired male no longer being a part of his life made his chest tighten. even if they would never be together in the way he wanted to, archer was happy to just be the dork the older male used for financial purposes. the younger’s face lit up right away when kaito showed him ‘mercy’. “yeah, of course, of course!” he promised, nodding his head firmly, a wide smile playing on his lips. however, the latter faltered quickly when his addiction problems were brought up once again. “yeah, i have help. lots of it, so don’t worry about it, alright?”
this thing between him and archer was never supposed to be more than a one night stand. in fact, it was never supposed to be anything at all but slowly and surely, the younger had worn his way under kaito’s defenses. each time that archer came to see him at the strip club, then waited for him until the end of his shift to get a chance to talk to him, kaito’s affection for him grew, grew, grew. archer was different from the other clients. respectful of him regardless of his profession, never pushing beyond boundaries and looking at him as more than a piece of meat.
it’s hard for kaito to juggle his job, his responsibility to his niece--and figuring out how to take care of her because his parents are not an example to follow--and now, a relationship of sort who was turning out to be a complex mess though he can’t say that he regrets giving archer a shot. “i worry.” this is as close to a confession that archer would get from kaito for the time being. “prove it, archer.” kaito isn’t stupid. he isn’t going to take archer’s word and believe him blindly. in fact, he has a feeling that the younger is lying to him. he doesn’t want to push archer but nor does he want to watch him slowly self destruct until it’s too late. maybe, just maybe, kaito cares for the younger more than he’s ready to admit and accept. “i’ll help you get over this.” kaito holds up his pinky finger and wiggles it, urging archer to hook his own with his. the gesture is childish but a show of how serious he is about helping him.